Johan Davidsson

Docent at
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences, Vehicle Safety

Johan Davidsson research aims at preventing harm to the human body when exposed to high mechanical loads of the type often found in traffic accidents. The research stretches from damage and failure mechanisms at the micro level in the tissue to the study of whole-body mechanical response to violent external loads. The main focus is on brain injuries, milder forms of neck injury, often referred to as whiplash associated disorders, and chest injuries. Most of the research aims to increase understanding of how these parts of the human body reacts to forces; its biomechanical response. The work is mostly of an experimental nature. The goal of the research is to provide injury criteria and risk functions that can be used together with dummies. Some research is conducted where injury criteria and risk functions are developed for mathematical models of the human; both for models of in vehicle occupants and pedestrians. Research ultimate goal is to create principles for new or improved injury protection systems, for example in vehicles. Examples of such are airbags, whiplash protection, or child seats. It also includes personal protection such as helmets or protection of various body parts of a bicyclist. The studies are primarily conducted for injury reduction in eth road traffic environment; the vehicle industry and authorities are the two main end users. Studies are also conducted in other fields such as for sports, medical and military settings. Examples of research are diagnosis and treatment of brain injuries, mild form of brain injury in sports, brain injuries resulting from blast related violence and as a result of shrapnel penetration into the skull cavity. Another area of research is integrated safety. Here the focus is on the development of mathematical models of humans that can simulate the events just before a collision. A future challenge is to simulate the entire event including pre-crash and in-crash. An adjacent research topic is the development of test methods for integrated safety. The research is carried out at SAFER – Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden with its partners. Research on brain injuries, injury mechanisms and tolerances are carried out in in close collaboration with the Karolinska Institute and the Japan Automotive Research Institute (JARI). Johan Davidsson teaches the course Impact Biomechanics, study period IV and the PhD-course Anatomy and Physiology.